Shadow Void

Nature Pick; Nature picture

Lake Michigan in March taken from one of the Blowouts at Indiana Dunes State Park

Nature Weekend; The Coral Destroyer

Crown of Thorns Starfish ( Acanthaster planci )

Once again, we find ourselves in the ocean. Today, our oceanic journey takes into the coral reef. We are going to learn a little bit about this unique starfish. It can grow to be 30 inches wide and it can have up 23 arms, though 15 to 16 arms are much more common. One female starfish can produce 60 million eggs in one summer. Like all starfish, the crown of thorns has the ability to regenerate any lost arms or rays. It takes about 6 months for arm to be totally renewed. The crown of thorns has a trick up it's sleeve. It's toxic. It's venom enters the human body via the thorns, which can be 2 inches long. In humans, the venom causes fever, vomiting, and temporary poisoning. For food, this starfish feeds on corals. In areas where natural predators have been locally reduced in numbers this starfish can destroy sections of coral reef, as it did in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The reason for their population boom was in fact the removal of disappearance of the giant Triton Conch. This species of snail feed on the crown of thorns and kept their numbers in balance.

Predator and prey, it's a unique balancing act in the wild. To few predators and the prey species jump out of control. To few prey species and a predator can starve. A healthy ecosystem will have the proper balance between the hunter and the hunted. We see this in many places in the Midwest United States. When we killed off the natural predators, the deer population was allowed to jump out of control. Now in many state parks, they do controlled hunts. While these hunts may not sit well with animal right's groups, they are important not only for the deer population but for the ecosystems that they live in. Without the hunts, the white-tail deer population could face starvation because of the number of deer competing for the same food resources. Diseases could spread faster since there would be a large population for the disease organism to reside in. Our human population takes up valuable land resources where deer might have feed or gone for cover in. Now, they are forced to live in tracks of forested or wild lands. They do so with few predators. In my area humans are their main enemy, though I sometimes wonder about feral dogs. Nature doesn't like it when her balance is thrown off not even a little bit.

Nature Moments; Something Amiss

        

This picture is a reminder that nature isn't just about plants and animals. It takes the complete picture to make up nature. I happen to love scenery. This clip speaks to me.

This poor tree will never be the same. It will carry these carvings until it turns to dust. What these poor misguided people didn't know that the bark of a tree serves the same purpose as our skin. It keeps the bugs and germs out. When we break the bark, we can set death in motion.